SpaceX Planning to Launch Starlink v3 Broadband Satellites in 6-9 Months

The CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, has revealed that the first batch of their next generation Starlink v3 satellites could “start launching [into Low Earth Orbit] on Starship in 6 to 9 months“, which are eventually expected to push broadband speeds closer to gigabit (1000Mbps) territory and further improve latency times. But Musk is known for over-promising on timelines.

At present Starlink has around 7,650 satellites in Low Earth Orbit (c.3,300 are v2 Mini / GEN 2A) – mostly at altitudes of c.500-600km – and they’ll add thousands more by the end of 2027. Residential customers in the UK typically pay from £75 a month, plus £299 for hardware on the ‘Standard’ unlimited data plan (currently free in some areas on a 12-month term), which promises UK latency times of 28-36ms, downloads of 103-258Mbps and uploads of 15-26Mbps. But cheaper and more restrictive options also exists for roaming users.

According to past documents, each v3 satellite will be able to handle 1 Terabit per second (1000Gbps) of downlink speed and 160Gbps of uplink capacity (shared capacity), with the future Starship rocket seemingly able to put around 50-60 of the much larger and heavier v3 satellites per launch into orbit (here).

The new satellites will also orbit closer to earth (a lower altitude is good for performance but does sacrifice coverage) and will be able to harness more radio spectrum frequency to help support their performance, as well as other enhancements (newer antennas, solar arrays etc.). But until now there hasn’t been much clarity on when the first v3’s will be launched, which is mainly due to a string of recent struggles with the Starship launch vehicle.

Elon Musk said (X):

“With the version 3 Starlink satellites, which start launching on Starship in 6 to 9 months, we should be able to get latency below 20ms.

The new, much larger satellites will be at ~350km instead of ~550km altitude, which cuts latency due to speed of light down to ~5ms.

Also, the Starlink laser links transmit data ~40% faster in vacuum vs fibre, so packets will move faster than anything on the ground. Helps to have physics on your side!”

The catch is that Musk has become somewhat known for overpromising on timescales and underdelivering, while his new Starship rocket is still struggling to complete a full mission without part of it blowing up. But progress is being made, and it will be interesting to see whether his latest prediction manages to hold a bit more water than past claims.

Currently, the average (median) UK download speed on Starlink is 66.8Mbps and this rises up to 157Mbps for those with the top 10% of fastest connections, while uploads average just 10.2Mbps or 16.7Mbps for those in the top 10% (here). Suffice to say that Starlink will need to loft quite a few v3 satellites before we start to see those much-vaunted gigabit speeds emerging.